Ask Cait // Q&A V1.

June 13, 2017

I am super excited to be kicking off a new series today: Ask Cait! My very favorite thing about blogging is being able to connect with all of you and after answering a bunch of questions via email and Instagram, I wanted to bring it on over to the blog because you guys have some pretty great questions and I want to be here to help ya out!

Ask Cait will be a monthly series where I’ll answer your questions – so keep ’em comin! You can submit any question that’s on your mind via this Google Form (or shoot me an email or Instagram DM, whatever is easiest for you). So let’s get to it! A few of your questions this month:

Do you have any travel recommendations from Iceland? I’m going over NYE this year and looking for tour guide, hotel, restaurant recommendations.

First off… DRESS WARM! I was there in the summer and it was still quite chilly so the winter is going to be no joke. My trip to Iceland was a bit different than my usual travels because I was with a group so we weren’t able to cover off on all of the things but a few tips/favorites:–

Plan ahead as far as accommodations and sightseeing goes – once you get outside of the city, most things are pretty far apart so get ready to spend a lot of time in the car. The landscape is crazy beautiful and it’s a very easy drive (although I’d recommend 4-wheel drive) but places to stop for food/gas will be limited, as will be places to stay. Spend about 2 days in Reykavik and then the remainder of your trip driving around the island – I wasn’t able to drive the full island during my trip but have it on my bucket list for a return trip!

Make Blue Lagoon reservations in advance and prepare for crowds. With the boom of tourism in Iceland and many airlines making layovers there have also come floods of tour buses to the Blue Lagoon. We only popped in to see it and did not do a soak or spa day but I have heard great things and friends have recommended booking an early morning or late night reservation to avoid some of the crowds.

Get ready for ALL OF THE WATERFALLS. Seriously, Iceland has a gazillion of ’em. My favorites were: Gullfoss, Skógafoss and Hraunfossar. Also be sure to check out Vik beach for a really beautiful black sand beach (and I’ve heard amazing things about the Glacier Lagoon although we weren’t able to make it there.

During your time in Reykavik, grab beers at the Mikheller bar, watch the sun set on the water by the Sun Voyager sculptuer and climb to the top of Hallgrímskirkja for really stunning views of the city from above. We also did an ATV tour just outside of the city through Safari Quads which was a lot of fun.

Do you have any advice for finding a job in another state? It’s hard to get noticed when by companies when you’re out of state.

This is definitely a tricky one (and something I haven’t quite mastered!). My move to Chicago was for a job transfer and I actually moved to San Francisco without a job and then interviewed aggressively after I got here. From the other side of things and my experience hiring for roles, I’d recommend putting your plans to relocate, including anticipated move dates, within your resume + as a prominent point in your cover letter. The job market can be really competitive which has made relocation packages less common so plan to potentially fund your own move and make it really clear to hiring managers that you’re committed to relocating. If you’re struggling to get hired from afar, consider focusing on saving as much money as possible and consider moving to your new city of choice before having a job lined up so you can network and be available for in-person interviews.And for anyone looking for a new gig… we’re hiring at Collectively (including on my team!)

This might be too personal for the blog, but I’m sure everybody is wondering about your breakup. I would understand if you don’t want to talk specific details, but I think we’re all curious how you’re doing, how you’re moving on, etc.

A few relationship-related questions came in and don’t worry… I get it! I’ve been a bit quiet about my breakup and adjustment to the single life on the blog and truly appreciate you all checking in on me. Although it was obviously a big change, I truly think it was one of those for the better situations for both of us and was a very clean break. I feel like I’m in a really good place at the moment and have been focused on figuring out my own wants and needs relationship-wise, while also spending time building my own personal happiness and having fun. Entering back into the dating world has been really interesting and I’ll be diving more into that soon in an upcoming post with some tricks I’ve picked up and my general no stress dating philosophy I’ve adopted.

When did you know the blog could be a successful business? What were your next steps?

It still blows my mind that this little blog of mine has become a business and I have to pinch myself regularly that I’m able to earn income doing something that I love so much. The blogging industry has had such a dramatic transformation over the past five years which has been really exciting to be a part of – although I’ve been earning revenue from blogging for the past 4-ish years, it was often minimal and very inconsistent and it wasn’t until I made a really conscious effort to treat my blog like a business vs. a hobby did that change. It’s been a lot of investment, both in the money + time departments, to put the right tools and process into place to focus on sustaining and growing the business and lately my biggest focus has been in finding ways to create high quality content, but also looking for opportunities to save time since blogging full-time is not a goal of mine.

What does work/life balance look like for you?

THE STRUGGLE IS REAL. Work/life balance is something that’s always top of mind and in full transparency, I’m not that great at it. I feel incredibly fortunate to do work that I truly love, both at Collectively and over here on Pretty & Fun which blurs the lines between work and life a bit but I work… a lot.I have found that staying really organized is the key to getting a lot done and staying on top of it all. I could not live without Google Calendar, tons of folders in my Gmail inboxes and TeuxDeux – every day is really planned out but I’ve also been making an effort to shake off any feelings of guilt when it doesn’t all get done. Travel has also been really important for me to feel balanced – I’ve made travel one of my biggest priorities for the year and love not only the new experiences that come with it, but also the opportunity/excuse to unplug and escape the day to day grind.For more of a peek into my routine, you can check out this post from a few months ago which is still really relevant.

Thank you again to everyone who sent in a question – if you didn’t see yours answered in today’s post, check back next month and please keep ’em coming!

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Pretty & Fun is a San Francisco lifestyle blog written by Cait Weingartner. It covers fashion, beauty, interior design, and travel and celebrates the little ways to make everyday just a little bit better.
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